Come Home is a new horror film directed by Nicole Pursell and Caitlin Zoz which is released on UK digital platforms on 9th December courtesy of Miracle Media.

The film concerns a pair of youngish New York couples (played by real-life partners and friends) who escape the pressures of city living to enjoy the great outdoors of the Adirondack Mountains.  Mel (co-director Zoz) and Ikenna (Chinaza Uche) have inherited a cabin that has been in Mel’s family for a long time.  They bring along their friends Taylor (Paton Ashbrook) and Arjun (Satya Sridharan).  However, hopes for a serene idyll are crushed by the appearance of apparent spirits of previous inhabitants and perhaps by forces of nature itself.

The synopsis of Come Home with its central location of a secluded log cabin invokes in one’s mind the tradition of films set in this type of milieu, most famously the majority of the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise (1981 – 2023) which was memorable if dryly spoofed by Josh Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods (2012).  However, Pursell and Zoz are evoking almost the opposite tradition to Sam Raimi and Co’s blood bolted, visceral if cartoonish movies.  The horror here arises not only from vague recollections of inexplicable events and strange manifestations but also from a suffocating sense of environment.  The directors’ effective use of the magisterial Adirondack locations results in a sense of the tall trees looking down on the protagonists and somehow being implicated in the events below. Originally the type of horror movies that use nature in this way were revolt of nature films such as Long Weekend (1978).  Recently however the use of nature as a suffocating presence has spread to other sub-genres beyond aggressive flora and fauna and forest spirits.  Think of The Beast Within (werewolves) and Brentwood (time loop science fiction) released within the last couple of years.

Besides the impressive location photography, the film benefits from its long takes and somewhat understated performances to create a low key and sometimes eerie aesthetic. 

In recent years with the success of art-horror movies like Hereditary and The Babadook, there has been something of a backlash among fans of the more conventional type of horror film with the essentially hostile expression “elevated horror” gaining traction.  Those fans have a point.  It is true that historically films which take an oblique or cerebral approach to horror have received a kind of love that more visceral or conventional movies, no matter how well crafted, never do.  Of course, there’s a place both for Robert Eggers (‘The Witch’) and Damien Leone (‘The Terrifier’ franchise).  Also, art-horror can have its own demerits.  In Come Home, the deliberate vagueness militates against the audience’s understanding of the movie.

In spite of some caveats, I feel Pursell and Zoz should be applauded on their ambition.  Come Home is a worthwhile endeavour with excellent creepy passages and an escalating sense of dread.